Let’s define your Gut and how does it work!
To learn about the Gut Health, we must first understand the Gut and its functioning in the human body. The Gut, can be defined as a canal or tube by which food travels and processed. It is a passageway for food from the mouth to anus.
In this process, the Gut helps the food in moving, the mixing of gastric fluids and the adding of nutrients, vitamins, minerals, and electrolytes that are required for our bodies to function and survive, and at the same time protecting the body from harmful substances.
Microbiota or flora (the symbiotic bacteria occurring naturally in the gut) determines your Gut Health. Deep in your gut, 40 trillion chemicals are hard at work helping you digest your meals, making essential nutrients you can’t produce on your own, protecting you from disease, and even shaping which parts of your DNA manifest and which remain dormant.
These talented organisms include fungi, bacteria, and other single-celled organisms. And are a major part of who you are and your health.
There are 10 times more bacteria in the gut as compared to the whole body. Your Gut health is hampered when there is an imbalance in the number & diversity of bacteria in your Gut. Healthy ageing is a sign of your healthy bacteria or healthy gut.
Gut helps in metabolism. For a strong metabolism, we need to ensure that our gut flora is balanced and diversified. Therefore, we need to care about the following things:
- Nutrition
- Use of Probiotic Foods
- Use of Prebiotic Foods
- Use of Fermented Foods.
- Avoid Antibiotics
- Avoid Antibacterial Cleaners
- Use a rich diet containing at least 60% fruits & vegetables.
Importance of Gut Health:
Humans have between 20,000 and 25,000 protein-coding genes in the body, with a large percentage contributing to a Healthy Gut. The microbiota or microflora or Gut flora, microbial cells and their genetic material, the microbiome, live with humans from birth. It helps us to maintain normal and good health. The human microbiota is made up of trillions of cells, including bacteria, viruses, and fungi. The biggest populations of microbes reside in the gut. Other popular habitats include the skin and genitals.
Around the world, researchers are concentrating on finding clues and reasons for human sickness and diseases, and have been able to conclude there is a relationship between diseases and the state of your Gut Health. The gut microbiota fights against diseases and maintains your mood and psychology. Gut health is very important to improve the quality of life and the fight against diseases.
- The microbiome— your beneficial Gut bacteria helps in the maintenance of well-being.
- The digestive system – Gut produces nutrients by breaking down the food we eat.
- Appetite –Gut microbes shape your appetite.
- Allergies – it fights against allergies.
- Metabolism – Better metabolism means better health.
- Psychology- It has been found that gut bacteria influence your mood by producing neurotransmitters, such as serotonin, dopamine, and GABA. Your gut microbiota may fight against developing psychiatric illnesses like schizophrenia, ADHD, obsessive-compulsive disorder, Somatoform Disorder, and chronic fatigue syndrome. The bacteria in your gut are of vital importance and impact the way you feel.
- Normal Health – Good bacteria in the Gut help to maintain normal health which is very important in life.
- Effect on the autoimmune system – A poor gut affects the autoimmune system, leading to the body attacking itself. It can develop certain food intolerance because of the poor quality of bacteria in the gut.
- Inflammation- The bacteria in the Gut can be a cause of inflammation. To avoid inflammation, you need good bacteria in the Gut.
Conclusion:
Your gut microbiome is made up of trillions of bacteria, fungi and other microbes. The gut microbiome plays a major role in your health by assisting with the control of digestion and benefiting your immune system and many other aspects of health. An imbalance of unhealthy and healthy microbes in the intestines may contribute to weight gain, high blood sugar, high cholesterol and other disorders.
